Locus Gear

Hi Jennifer,

How did you swap out the foam handles to GG handles? I am all geared up to do this and would appreciate your thoughts on the best way to do this. Cheers!

I cut off the foam ones…they came off pretty easily…then gently sanded down the stuff that was left with some steel wool. Widened the opening to the GG grips with a long screwdriver, then used WD-40 as a lubricant/adhesive, and muscled them on there.

It was quite easy, actually. The grips were stubborn to get on and to widen enough, but it just took some manual labor.

HERE is a good description on swapping the handles.

Thx Jennifer and Link, your comments are much appreciated.

So I challenged my father the problem solving engineer to come up with a solution to the "rattle," "resonance," whatever we want to call it.

With about two seconds of thought he took some scotch tape, wrapped it around the top half-inch of each section to thicken the male end of the pole, then voila! No rattle.

For a more permanent solution we thought maybe some heat shrink around the top…just below the plastic tip at the end of the pole section. Basically the plastic button at the end is ever so slightly bigger, and this creates a bit of rattle of the inner pole against the outer pole once the pole is seated inside the other section.

Does this make sense??

Just to note, I wouldn't recommend using glue when swapping out grips as per the link that "Link" posted. If ever you have to replace your grips again you have a crusty mess to have to scrape off, i.e. way too permanent. WD40 is the ticket. Installs better, equally good adhesion, and when it comes time to replacement you just seperate the grip seal a bit and work some water around the inside of the grip to reactivate the "lube", grip will slide right off.I worked in bike shops for forever, used this trick on all of our grips.

"With about two seconds of thought he took some scotch tape, wrapped it around the top half-inch of each section to thicken the male end of the pole, then voila! No rattle."

Why not use Leukotape, then you've got some if you need it and it's serving another purpose until you do! Or is the amount needed too small to do any good for blister relief/prevention.

Jennifer,

Is there a way to tighten the cap? (I have the older version so apparently don't have this problem) If the cap was very rigid this might get rid of it. Probably anything that keeps the metal from hitting metal with remove the sound. Unwanted oscillations can suck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFzu6CNtqec

LOL

Thanks to your dad (and for your initiative).

Jennifer,
would be great if you should provide pic of this rattle fix..

thanks,

Billy

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=85242&skip_to_post=726898#726898

I did the fix first ;-)

Peter,
pics would be helpful to those us who do not own the poles…

being able to better understand the 'rattle fix' is prerequisite to my purchasing them..

thanks,,

Billy

Thanks Peter, was pretty sure someone figured this out before. This is the most precise yet.

Royalty check is in the mail. :-)

Billy, I'll see what I can do. Maybe tomorrow.

Mark, thanks. I'm really on a posting-break, but I wanted the royalties.. ;-)

Ooh Peter many apologies! I missed your fix and challenged my dad…

Credit where credit is due my friend!!!

I have tried the tape fix. It does not work very well. At best it is a temporary solution, at worst it will create other problems.

I put one wrap of scotch tape at the end of the bottom and mid sections just below the end cap. This does reduce the rattle, but it does not eliminate it. So tried a second wrap of scotch tape. But this is a bit wide for the hole. Yes, it can be forced in, but the tape gets torn up a bit. When I took it back out pieces of tape were left inside the hole and the pole sections inside and out were gummed up with the glue for the tape. This would be a problem in the field as sand, grit, dust would cling to the glue creating abrasion on the carbon fiber and friction when trying to extend and collapse the poles.

I did not try other types of tape, but I assume duct tape would be a problem too as the glue on that tape is notorious for gumming things up.

So then I tried the heat shrink idea, but that stiff is too think and would not enter the hole… further, as I pushed the heat shrink would move down the pole.

So I don't think tape or heat shrink is the solution.
I am considering two other options:

1) painting a thin coating of finger nail polish on the ends that go inside… or maybe a very thin and quick drying epoxy if there is such a thing. Hopefully this would be thin enough to go inside, strong enough adhesion that it would last, and hard enough that it would slide without too much friction and not attract grit.

2) the second idea is to remove the end caps and then sculpt new end caps out of closed cell foam that would be a little wider than the stock end caps. The foam should push into the hole even if it's a little wider than the hole and should keep the inside tubing from slapping against the sides of the outside tubing. The foam would have to be glued into the tubing.

Your thoughts???

Billy

Weirdly enough I was just intending to finally do a fix on these, in the next day or so, so I'll be interested to hear any updated suggestions.

EDIT: OK, I just tried it with some pieces of tenacious tape, very strong, the kind with the cloth-like surface. It worked great and I assume it will not rub off as easily. Also doesn't hurt that I have it in my repair kit.

for the files…

i tried the fix last night. it worked perfectly on one, but just alright on the other.

gaff tape was too thick. i went with a length ~1.5" length of electrical tape, placed vertically on the pole section, so the width of the electrical tape covered ~half the circumference of the pole.

It's an oscillation issue of course, and I was playing with it yesterday and noticed the rattle went away (in my living room at least) if you don't have a death grip on the handle. The oscillations get damped out and disappear if I have my hand loosely through the straps. So I was wondering if another, more subtle solution would be to use straps that had a bit of elasticity to them – just enough to cause the oscillation to damp out really well.

Yeah I know, lots harder than just taping. Still, better then the "usual" way of adding weights at strategic points.

I think you may find the tape will pull off when you remove the pole from the hole or with repeated opening and closing of the poles, leaving sticky adhesive on inside and outside of poles…. a mess. Especially on a warm day in the sun. Me thinks tape is a poor solution at best.
billy

The tape seem to work great unless you like to collapse your poles a lot. So still no nirvana solution for the nirvana trekking poles for me.

i haven't used them for a trip yet, but the 'rattle' didn't seem any worse than some aluminum poles i've had in the past. less, in fact.

technique does seem to factor, having a light grip and swing helps.

the question now is whether to take them out with the stock grips, or put the gg grips i've got here on them. i haven't gone strapless before, but want to, and can tell i'd like the larger grip of the gg's better..but the stock grips are pretty nice as they are, and there are some advantages to properly used straps.

ok..i just cut one grip off. if you've done the gg conversion, how did you deal with the plastic cap at the top of the pole that holds the strap before putting the gg grips on?

edit:put some pliers on the cap and twist-pulled it out.

i haven't used them for a trip yet, but the 'rattle' didn't seem any worse than some aluminum poles i've had in the past. less, in fact.

It may depend on how tall you are. When they are extended all the way there is less tubing inside to rattle.

Of course, some people are less sensitive to sounds than others also.

I'm back from a 400km, 14 day hike, and the CP3 poles with gaffa fix caused no problems.

Pray tell, what is a "gaffa fix" ?

Hey Billy, I'm just talking about my original gaffa tape fix, which is still holding up fine.

You don't call the tape gaffa?

Hope you find a solution that works out. I really like these poles.